Cited by 1,206Non-Invasive Vital Sign MonitoringCardiovascular Health and Disease PreventionHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

On the Analysis of Fingertip Photoplethysmogram Signals

Open access
Elgendi, Mohamed·2012·Current Cardiology Reviews

Abstract

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is used to estimate the skin blood flow using infrared light. Researchers from different domains of science have become increasingly interested in PPG because of its advantages as non-invasive, inexpensive, and convenient diagnostic tool. Traditionally, it measures the oxygen saturation, blood pressure, cardiac output, and for assessing autonomic functions. Moreover, PPG is a promising technique for early screening of various atherosclerotic pathologies and could be helpful for regular GP-assessment but a full understanding of the diagnostic value of the different features is still lacking. Recent studies emphasise the potential information embedded in the PPG waveform signal and it deserves further attention for its possible applications beyond pulse oximetry and heart-rate calculation. Therefore, this overview discusses different types of artifact added to PPG signal, characteristic features of PPG waveform, and existing indexes to evaluate for diagnoses. Keywords: Photoplethysmography, acceleration plethysmogram, second derivative plethysmogram, digital volume pulse, ageing, artery, autonomic function, blood pressure, cardiovascular, heart rate, pulse wave analysis, vascular disease

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Crossref · 10.2174/157340312801215782

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85 of 85 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • The shape of a clean PPG signal is closely related to the blood pulse wave of the human body.

    “The shape of a clean PPG signal is closely related to the blood pulse wave of the human body25”

    From Data quality evaluation in wearable monitoring (2022) · cites this paper as [25]

  • PPG signals can be expressed in Volts, with the pulsatile component of the order of 1 mV in amplitude, although lower amplitudes can be caused by technical factors such as inappropriate gain control or physiological factors such as vasoconstriction.

    “In this case, the pulsatile component of the PPG can be of the order of 1 mV in amplitude [55] although lower amplitudes can be caused by technical factors, such as inappropriate gain control, or physiological factors, such as vasoconstriction [9].”
  • Obesity can lead to changes in skin thickness, blood flow, and oxygen saturation, affecting the optical properties of skin and the distance light has to travel to reach a target vessel.

    “In particular, obesity can lead to changes in skin thickness, blood flow, and oxygen saturation. This affects the optical properties of skin in addition to the distance light has to travel to reach a target vessel or vessels [48,59,60].”
  • Publications that experimentally and explicitly demonstrate the effect of obesity or BMI on the PPG waveform are limited.

    “While, to the authors’ knowledge, publications that experimentally and explicitly demonstrate the effect of obesity or BMI on the PPG waveform are limited, we will explore works which suggest that there would be a substantial effect [56,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70].”
  • The ratio b/a has been found to correlate positively to age, while c/a, d/a and e/a have all been correlated negatively to age.

    “The ratio b/a has been found to correlate positively to age, while c/a, d/a and e/a have all been correlated negatively to age [29,59].”

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3 of the 88 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [59]Takazawa KTN Fujita M Matsuoka O Saiki T Aikawa M Tamura S Ibukiyama C Assessment of vasocative agents and vascular aging by the second derivative of photoplethysmogram waveform Hypertension 1998 32 365 70 9719069
  2. [80]Elgendi M Jonkman M De Boer F Fred A Filipe J Gamboa h Heart Rate Variability and Acceleration Plethysmogram measured at rest Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies: 2011 Springer 266 77
  3. [81]Tokutaka H MY Gonda E Yamamoto M Construction of a General Physical Condition Judgment System Using Acceleration Plethysmogram Pulse-Wave Analysis 2009 Berlin/Heidelberg Springer 5629 307 15

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Authors
Elgendi, M.
Affiliations
Charles Darwin University (AU)
Corresponding author
Elgendi, Mohamed
Venue
Current Cardiology Reviews
Published
2012-06-01
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
14-25
ISSN
1573-403X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1981918735
Cited by
1,206
References
88
Citations by year
2026: 120 · 2025: 106 · 2024: 116 · 2023: 109 · 2022: 130 · 2021: 114 · 2020: 118 · 2019: 118 · 2018: 86 · 2017: 65 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 1
FWCI
2.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Current Cardiology Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Univerzita Karlova v Praze
  • Australian Government
  • Charles Darwin University
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Health and Disease Prevention
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
Keywords
photoplethysmography, digital volume pulse, aging, autonomic function, blood pressure, heart rate, pulse wave analysis, cardiovascular disease, vascular disease, atherosclerosis screening
MeSH terms
Fingers, Hemodynamics, Humans, Skin, Artifacts, Photoplethysmography, Pulse Wave Analysis

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